Every now and then I ask myself: what is it I am really doing? I always seem to come up with the same type of answer, independent of the project I am currently in. My work basically consists of understanding the situation, formulating questions, finding answers by talking to a lot of people, and writing everything down in some structured form. Is this the essence of being an architect? Organisations seem to think that architecture can be formalised using processes, methods, techniques and templates. You are at the highest maturity level when these all are updated continuously to reflect the latest insights. What often seems to get insufficient attention is understanding what an architect really does, and how he can be most effective. I have been surprised over and over again by this lack of attention, and also by the perceived ineffectiveness of architects. I feel there is a real need for a standard way of working for architects.
Let's take a deeper look at what an architect typically does, to see if we can get a feeling of what a standard way of working could look like. Your work typically starts by talking to some sponsor, from which you hear the context, the issues that need to be solved and some high-level requirements. You are then typically pointed to some documentation and other people you should talk with. You start reading this documentation, and all sorts of questions start to pop up in your mind and you start writing them down. You talk to some people and start to form a better idea of the situation. They provide you with some answers for the questions you had, but also they also raise new questions and requirements. You make a first draft of the architecture based on what you now know. You identify strategies for the issues and requirements, find advantages and disadvantages for the various strategies and start drawing sketches of a solution. In doing this you must make all sorts of assumptions, that you again need to validate with other people. You feel it is time to organize a workshop to validate your ideas, and come to some new insights. Since, you know that you lack the detailed knowledge required to come to the required results you invite a number of specialists. You use the results of the workshop to refine your initial document. At some point you feel that enough input has been provided, and that the proposed solution is pretty stable. You send around the document for reviewing, and adapt it to reflect the review comments. The time has now come to present your results to your sponsor. If your sponsor is happy, your assignment has ended.
Does this all sound familiar? If so; you are probably an architect. I even feel that it does not really matter if you are a business architect, application architect or infrastructure architect; the working approach is very similar. Generic skills such as problem analysis, research, consulting, workshop facilitation, report writing and presentation skills are much more important than adherence to formalized processes, methods and techniques. As an example of the latter: my main tools are Word and PowerPoint, and they are more than sufficient to support my work. In the end it is really the architect that is making the difference, not the process.
Be the first to write a comment
Only registered users can write comments. Please login or register.
Via Nova Architectura is not responsible for the content of blogs, but authors and readers are asked to adhere the following guidelines. Authors are strongly encouraged to check facts, cite sources, present
balanced views, acknowledge and correct errors. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws. Please do not disparage organizations, or individuals. Being critical of someone's practice is acceptable, when it is done in a professional manner. Prevent usage of marketing statements. Comments should be relevant to the specific post they are attached to. Spam, flaming, personal attacks, and off-topic comments are not
permitted. Readers are requested to notify
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
of any violations. The editor holds the right to remove any statements that, in the editors opinion, infringe the above guideline(s). The author receives a notification of this action.
